To this day, I still dream of that Star Control sequel.

In an interview with Arc Technica’s Lee Hutchinson, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell has stated the following:

Wardell’s Star Control would take place 43 years before the events of Star Control 2 and would function as a prequel. “We plan to start the game around 2112 with aliens first contacting the Earthlings and the formation of Star Control,” he explained. From there, the game will proceed in the same open-ended adventure fashion as Star Control 2—Wardell told Ars that the player would captain the Earthling flagship, which can be fortified with upgrades as it explores the galaxy.

“This has been a much discussed topic internally,” he replied. “Since Paul and Fred can’t officially be involved, we decided we would create a new continuity that splits off from the Ur-Quan continuity starting 250,000 years prior where something happened to the Precursors.”

Splitting off an alternate timeline, says Wardell, gives series creators Ford and Reiche the ability to continue the “main” Star Control plot if they choose to do so at some point. “Morally, we just didn’t feel it would be right to try to impose our vision onto Paul and Fred’s sci-fi universe,” explained Wardell.

We asked for more details on that team of fanatics, and Wardell didn’t disappoint: “The game itself is being developed by veteran developers from Firaxis, Big Huge Games, and Stardock, whose engineering and art talent are amazing, but also know what a Star Control game should be like,” he said.

Maybe this could be a sign that a new dev team composed people from other places will be created similar to the formations of Sledgehammer Games for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and 343 Industries for Halo: Reach.

“We intend to make Super Melee a pretty big part of the game from a multiplayer point of view,” Wardell confirmed. “It’ll be an expansion on what was in Star Control 2, except we would like to support more sophisticated battle arenas and up to 8 players. We picture there being a lot of different modes for Super Melee, ranging from classic to Dota-style super melee.”

As with all good things, Star Control will come only to those who wait. “We don’t expect to even consider what a release date is until next year (2015) at which point we’ll have a good idea of how far along we are,” he said. However, unlike Star Control 2’s dual platform release, the new title will be available on a multitude of systems. “We do expect the new one to be home on the PC but also be available on Mac, PS4, Xbox One, Steambox, and any other platform that Nitrous supports.”

Comparing this to the Star Trek reboot

When 2009 Star Trek (directed by JJ Abrams) was released, it received very positive reviews and was very profitable. It reached levels of success that surpassed the previous films. I did enjoy the movie and it really showed how special effects have evolved over time. It also took place in an alternate timeline, giving Abrams and the writers room to change things around without having to “retcon” anything.

Budgeting have always been an issue for Star Trek and it’s great to see that Star Trek is growing into a successful movie franchise just like Star Wars, which JJ Abrams will also be directing in the future.

Some decisions had to be made by the producers in order to gain this success, mainly a plot that revolves saving a planet and lots of action. It’s very hard to make a big-budget sci-fi movie that doesn’t revolve around saving the world or the universe. There is much more action to maintain a fast pace.

Did you know that Gene Roddenberry was not directly involved in the development of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan? Due to the mixed reception of The Motion Picture, his role was changed to Executive Consultant, and a new script and director was chosen for the sequel.

The reason why I mentioned Star Trek is because the target audiences are different and the competition is much greater. There are a certain set of expectations one can make about big-budget sci-fi and can not be easily applied to games. They were aware of the previous Star Trek movies and what can be done to make it more successful.

Conclusion

It’s very clear that Brad Wardell wants to create a new Star Control game that appeals to fans and is approved by Paul and Fred. Due to TFB’s contract with Activision, they cannot be directly involved in the development of this game. Activision loves Skylanders way too much. Stardock is known for their stance against DRM and their publishing of niche games/utilities made of smaller budgets compared to larger studios and making a profit (e.g. Sins of a Solar Empire, Demigod). It’s very early in development and no concept art of this Star Control has been released yet. However, I feel that this new team Stardock is putting together may be able to pull it off. They’ve got a lot of things to cover to match the unique touches of SC2 such as the music, alien artwork, witty dialog, fonts and unique ship design. Strangely enough, SC2 was never 100% polished and Paul and Fred worked overtime to get it done and left things out such as Groombridge and the infamous “planet lander bug”.

Only time can tell when we will get more details about what kind of game this is going to be. Brad has also stated that this will not be a 4X style game (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) like SOASE.

This is a terrible, atrocious idea. Many games could benefit from reboots, but the people looking forward to this is the people who are nostalgically connected with SC2. This game doesn't need a redesign at all. Not ships, not aliens. If they want to make another Galactic Civilizations, I suggest they do so, and leave this franchise alone. Evidentally they don't have the same love for it as the fans does. Please stop this, for the sake of Frungy.

M// Nov 17, 2015 at 10:29 pm

Honestly?

I think the Stardock version so far actually looks WORSE to me then SC3.

And I'll back it up too!

You see, in the past I talked a bit with the developers of Master of Orion 3 (And we know how THAT turned out.) Tried to explain to them that their supposedly ultra cool harder sci-fi idea's where NOT what Master of Orion was about. And they did not listen.

Now on this Star Control reboot, I've already seen some Stardock guy ramble about how the aliens all had to be non-humanoid and couldn't speak english because he didn't like that.

And not only is that the EXACT same attitude as the Master of Orion 3 developpers. It also shows this team doesn't GET Star Control, and that they don't respect it either.

Star Control is supposed to be colourful, set firmly in the space opera genre, and have a very strong element of humour to it.

It is NOT supposed to be hard-sci-fi-ish at all, about starfish aliens that don't speak english because real aliens wouldn't speak english. Star Control has ROOM for a race like that (Though the Orz already have a lock on that role!) But it's not all about that sort of sci-fi.

And Star Control 3, poor as it was at least tried to keep the genre and spirit right.

And Stardock won't try that. Ergo it'll just be some spacegame that, given Stardock's reputation will probably be quite mediocre. That will feel NOTHING like Star Control at all.

As such, whilst I do think Project 6014 will be a nice fan project that will get the rough spirit of the original right. (Also non canon, but looks like it'll be fun if it'll be completed) I am not exited AT ALL about Stardock's attempt.

Completely indifferent, but with negative expectations.

The fact that, that Wardell guy is apparently one of those gamergaters is a minor annoying detail. (As I can't fucking STAND gamergaters, MRA's and other suck fuckers.) But I don't suppose that'd affect the game that much. More of a cherry on what looks like a non-appetizing sunday.

(Also those JJ Abrams movies... Blegh... I know *I* did NOT enjoy them)